News

Good morning; whatcha reading? Here's our list:

• Prosecutors in the Cleveland kidnapping case are weighing whether to charge Ariel Castro with feticide for intentionally causing  Michelle Knight, one of his captives, to miscarry several pregnancies. From a reproductive-justice standpoint, this could set a dangerous precedent. [The Daily Beast]

• Kiera Wilmot, the Florida teen who made national news a few weeks back when she was arrested for causing a small explosion at her school while conducting a science experiment, will not be charged with a crime. And Homer Hickom, the former NASA engineer whose memoir became the movie October Sky, has awarded Kiera a scholarship to attend the United States Advanced Space Academy. [The Root, Black Youth Project]

• Eesha Pandit knows she may be expecting too much from The Mindy Project, but her heartfelt piece about how she gave up on the show is still worth a read. [Crunk Feminist Collective]

• How college campuses are taking steps to acknowledge and combat rape culture. [ThinkProgress]

• At the Nation, Farai Chideya considers "the resegregation of American media" and makes a case for why race and class in journalism matter. [The Nation]

• In GQ, The Office's Ellie Kemper asks "Can Men Be Funny?" For extra laughs, check the comments for some angry, satire-deficient responses from actual men. [GQ]

• A great piece from Kma Sullivan on being bored with the quotidian, mindless, and largely unintentonial sexism of ostensibly "good" guys. [The Rumpus]

Here's to your weekend! As always, share your fave current reads in the comments!

Here's all the feminist news I'm reading today. What's on your radar?

• The National Conference of Black Lawyers criticizes the FBI's continued hunt for "most wanted woman" Assata Shakur. [Feminist Wire] 

• How Star Trek failed on LGBT issues. [Wired] 

• When will the military reach "the tipping point" on rape and actually try to change? [Salon] 

• Speaking of the military, here's one female veteran's gripping video about dealing with PTSD. [New York Times] 

• The Mindy Project has solid, complex characters of color, while so many shows tend toward stereotypes. [Racialicious]

• In the opposite of the Abercrombie and Fitch firestorm, H&M uses a plus-size model and thinks it's no big deal. [xoJane] 

• Is "When did you decide to be straight?" a question that makes sense? One writer says no. [Cori Wong] 

• In all the hubbub around Angelina Jolie's mastectomy, one woman explains why she didn't want to get tested for the BRCA gene.

[Slate]

Happy hump-day! Here's some of the feminist news we've been reading at Bitch HQ.  

Stay tuned!

It's Tuesday! Here's what's on our radar...

• "People who live under threat of persecution by the state cannot be asked to rely solely on the state to protect them." Eesha Pandit looks at the Cleveland kidnapping, bystander intervention, and community responses to violence. [The Nation]

• Kendra James takes a look the diversity of this fall's network TV lineup. [Racialicious]

• Comedian Selene Luna shares helpful hints for "How to not be a dick to a little person." [xojane]

• Kermit Gosnell has been found guilty of three counts of murder, among numerous other charges for the horrific state of his Philadelphia clinic. [Atlantic Wire]

• Brenda Chapman, writer and co-director of Brave, says Merida's new makover is "a blatantly sexist marketing move based on money." [Marin Independent Journal]

• Dr. Monica Stephens of Humboldt State University has put together a "hate map" showing where homophobic, racist, and ableist tweets originate from. [Humboldt State]

• Speaking of bigotry, Dan Snyder, the owner of the Washington Redskins football team, says that that they will never change their racist name. [Yahoo Sports]

Share what you're reading in the comments!

Welcome to Monday! Here's all the feminist news I'm reading this morning. 

• What makes a mother? Here's a sweet little story about being a transgender parent. [The New York Times] 

* And to make you feel depressed about Mother's Day: An infographic of maternity leave around the world compared to the US. [Upworthy] 

• The final death toll at the Bagladeshi garment factory that collapsed: 1,127. Here's why the tragedy is a feminist issue.   [BBC, Red Light Politics]

• Under Siege: A dispatch from North Dakota's last abortion clinic. [Guardian] 

• You know what should be easier to fight? Posting naked photos and video of someone online without their consent. [The Atlantic] 

• The rise of Beyonce and the fall of Lauryn Hill: A comparison of the two icons. [The Feminist Wire] 

• Brave's Merida gets a bit of a thinning makeover by Disney. [Sociological Images] 

• And, hey! Did you know there's a new IUD designed specifically for women who haven't had kids? [Go Ask Alice] 

What are you reading? Add good links to the comments!

Good morning!  Here's what we're reading for the day:

• When Seema Jilani attended the cocktail hour of the White House Correspondents' Dinner with her husband and forgot her keys upon exiting, she was greeted with horrifying, blatant racism by the security as she tried to reenter. [Huffington Post]
• Ladies are all too familiar with catcalls and unwarranted "compliments" from dudes.  Here's why men should think twice before telling a woman he doesn't know that she looks hot. [Freethought Blogs]
• Although Francisco Martinez was awarded the honor to meet President Obama after winning an academic competition, that privilege was denied after he was deemed a "security threat" for being an undocumented student. [Jose Luis DREAMS]
• Being a member of marginalized group in the age of Internet memes and GIFs creates fear whenever a "ridiculous" or scary news story breaks. Renee of Womanist Musings feared for how she and other marginalized groups would be percieved if the man who dialed 911 for weed and burgers was Black and if the Boston bombers were of color and/or Muslim. [TransGriot]
• A film about young girls from different countries throughout the world seeking access to a better education called Girl Rising is urging viewers to donate to their cause.  While it's inspiring and whatnot, there are two major flaws with the film. [Bitch Flicks]
• With the race to succeed and urge to help your kids get ahead, schools are trying more than ever to cater to these desires.  One New York private school is giving it a go at $43,000 per year, and even claims to teach "humility." [Slate]
• Below is the trailer for a new Lifetime series produced by Eva Longoria called "Devious Maids."  The show features five Latin American women, working as maids.  Tanisha Ramirez of the Huffington Post wrote a piece about "Devious Maid's" problematic portrayl of Latin American women and how it perpetuates stereotypes.  A few days later, Eva Longoria posted a rebuttal in defense of the show. [Lifetime, Huffington Post]

There are far more questions than answers surrounding the case of the three kidnapped women in Cleveland who finally escaped their captors this week after up to a decade of imprisonment. Many details about their ordeal will certainly come to light in the coming weeks. But one question that should be at the forefront is why police didn’t find the missing women years ago.

Part of the answer is that Cleveland police held a dangerous assumption: that two of the victims, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight, were missing because they had each run away. Tragically, this assumption led law enforcement to take their cases less seriously.

Oh hello. Here's all the feminist news I'm reading today.

• A video of Charles Ramsey, the black neighbor of three kidnapping victims in Cleveland, went viral yesterday—it's remarkable not just because the neighbor helped rescue three imprisoned women, but because he points out issues of rampant racism. [Salon] 

* Delaware legalized same-sex marriage! [Autostraddle] 

• A judge blasts the Obama Administration's decision to keep fighting against Plan B access for young girls. [RH Reality Check]

• Lauryn Hill was sentenced to three months in prison for tax evasion, even though she paid off the back taxes. She compared the tax system to slavery, saying: "I was put into a system I didn't know the nature of.... I'm a child of former slaves. I got into an economic paradigm and had that imposed on me. I sold 50 million units ... now I'm up here paying a tax debt. If that's not likened to slavery, I don't know what is."

• In much better news, the guy in charge of Girls Gone Wild is also going to jail—he was convicted of false imprisonment and assault. [Salon] 

• Sexual assault in the military is not going away. In fact, it seems like 90 percent of military assaults are never reported. [Mother Jones]

• Do hospital bills make any sense? Survey says: No. A recent study found wildly differing charges for the same procedures, leaving the cost of healthcare dependent on the whims of each hospital. [New York Times] 

• Writer Sady Doyle emailed prolific rape-joke-maker Sam Morris and sinerely asked him why his routine is so heavy on hating women. He finally replied with, well, what you'd expect. [Global Comment] 

• 21 things making you fat right now: A list of the ridiculous things junk science has reported make you fat. [xoJane] 

• What do you desire? The new issue of n+1 has an interesting personal essay about one woman trying to figure out what she wants from sex and relationships. [n+1]

What are you reading? Add your links to the comments. 

May the seventh be with you! Here's what we're reading...

• A woman in Ontario has spent six years fighting for her right to wear a niqab while testifying against her abuser in court. Farrah Khan discusses the dangerous implications this case may have in terms of sexual assault, victim blaming, and Islamaphobia. [Shameless]

• Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped at age 14 in 2002, recently told a Johns Hopkins audience that abstienence-only education leads to abuse survivors feeling like they are worthless and not of value. (Link contains descriptions of abuse.) [Think Progress]

• The official in charge of the U.S. Air Force's sexual-assault prevention program was arrested for groping. Yeah. [NBC]

• Author Jamaica Kincaid talks to The American Reader about her new book, her style, and how critics often perceive her because she is a black Caribbean female writer. [The American Reader]

• After a widespread protest started by ColorOfChange, FOX has not renewed the long-running show Cops for its problematic depictions of law enforcement and race. [Colorlines]

• Skateboard brand Supreme appropriated the aesthetic of iconic feminist artist Barbara Kruger, and another artist copied them. Kruger isn't happy about either. [Atlantic Wire]

• Indian Country profiles WNBA and international basketball star Ryneldi Becenti about her career, the rise of Jude and Shoni Schimmel, and more. [Indian Country]

Share what you're reading in the comments!

Last week, the FBI named former Black Panther and member of the Black Liberation Army Assata Shakur as the first woman on its Most Wanted Terrorist List. This dubious milestone occurred 40 years to the day after she was, as she describes, unfairly convicted of shooting and murdering State Trooper Werner Foester in New Jersey on May 2^nd, 1973.